Photographers’ stories
The World Press Photo (WPP) ’03 exhibition held at the Drik Gallery in Dhanmondi was important on two counts. Shahidul Alam, Managing Director of Drik, became the first Asian as well as Bangladeshi to be made the chair of the jury that judged photographs for the main event. And for the first time, a previously unpublished photograph won the WPP of the Year.
It was the 11th time that Drik displayed photographs from all over the world that portrayed world events of immense importance. Founded in 1955, WPP is an independent platform for international press photography that manifests itself in an annual contest and results in a yearbook and exhibition. Each year, an independent 13-member jury judges entries in nine categories, submitted by journalists, agencies, newspapers and magazines from all corners of the world. The categories are–Spot News, General News, People in the News, Sports, Portraits, Arts, Science and Technology, Nature and the Environment, and Daily Life. Besides, two photos are given WPP of the Year and Children’s Jury awards. This year’s competition attracted 3913 photographs from 118 countries, taken in 2002.
The annual exhibition is held each year at about 80 venues in 40 countries on one very inflexible condition: not a single photo should be brought under any form of censorship. And implementation of this criterion is so strict that the slightest hint of censorship results in the cancellation of the whole exhibition. One such incident marked this year’s journey of the show across the world: the event did not take place in China as the government there declined to accept a photograph containing elements pointing to its sour relationship with North Korea.
The photo that won the WPP of the Year 2003 was taken by a relatively unknown photographer from Armenia named Eric Grigorian. The photo shows a boy mourning at his father’s graveside, holding the father’s trousers in his lap after the earthquake in Qazin Province of Iran in June 2002. The photo reminded viewers of the recent Iran tragedy in the city of Bum, which has not attracted much attention in western countries.
Another photograph, taken by an American girl named Carolyn Cole, shows the anxious faces of Palestinian hostages at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. Still another picture taken by Justin Sutcliffe of the United Kingdom depicts a female hostage of the Moscow theatre siege on October 26, ’02. The photographs by Brenda Ann Kenneally present a New York family addicted to drugs. Georges Gobet of France captures images of the political unrest in Ivory Coast, while US photographer Ami Vitale portrays images of the Gujarat riot in India.
The show focuses not only on grim images; there are also images of the lighter side of life including a portrait of famous actor Leonardo de Caprio and actress Sharone Stone arriving at the Cannes Film Festival.
The WPP exhibition in Bangladesh has never had to contend with problems such as censorship, audience support or organizational lapses. The credit for this must go to Drik gallery and it must be said that it has been able to create the opportunity annually to enable a large number of viewers to sample outstanding photographs from all over the globe.
The World Press Photo (WPP) ’03 exhibition held at the Drik Gallery in Dhanmondi was important on two counts. Shahidul Alam, Managing Director of Drik, became the first Asian as well as Bangladeshi to be made the chair of the jury that judged photographs for the main event. And for the first time, a previously…